galaxy watch 4: pause swimming in pool with buttons

[alex271]

hi, 

just tried my new #galaxy watch 4 in the pool but now the buttons don't work to pause the workout. one needs to first stop the water lock before you can pause the workout / swim which of course takes way too long / does not make any sense. with the active watch 2 you could pause the swim also in water lock mode.

any idea how to solve this? did the pms seriously not think about that?

thx!

alex

[AndrewL]

@alex271: I've had a look into this, and the user manual suggests pressing and holding the Back button to pause the exercise, or swiping right on the screen and tapping Pause. If the issue persists, you can disable Water Lock Mode by pressing and holding the Home button during the exercise. 

[alex271]

@andrewL thanks for looking into it but the method you mention does not work, pressing / holding the back button does nothing and first disabling waterlock mode does simply not make any sense since it adds min. 5 sec to your lap time - exactly the reason why in all other samsung watches the button works even if in water lock mode..

is there any way to get this fixed? 

[Benjamin Motal]

I have this same issue. With Watch 2 Active I could just press the button to pause with waterlock mode on. Now you have to turn water lock off to pause. Takes forever and my time is off now. Active 2 also does a better job with displaying swim data. I miss the green ring showing goal data. Watch 2 is better for swim.

Samsung add pause button when waterlock is on! Make your ui/ux better! You have two buttons on the watch. Use them.

[alex271]

any update on this one?

[Mikeality]

I have the same problem... its a bit of a joke, it worked fine on my old Galaxy Watch. The other issue I had on my first swim is when the swim is transferred to the phone Samsung Health, the GPS track is completely different and wrong compared to how it displays on the watch, as if it is corrupt and as a result it won't export to strava either... (This is for an open water swim)

[Benjamin Motal]

Samsung also ditched the "Keep display on during workout". You now have to use the Always on Display. The problem with this is the brightness with the always on display is very dim and can't see in the pool. 

I now have to use a 3rd party paid app from google play just to keep the screen on at full brightness during my swim. It's called StayLit Wear. It's a pain to turn on and off before swims but its a work around for the display. 

Hope this helps someone!

Hopefully Samsung will add the "Pause" button back on the next update as the button is not used for anything!

[Mikeality]

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@Benjamin Motal wrote:

Samsung also ditched the "Keep display on during workout". You now have to use the Always on Display. The problem with this is the brightness with the always on display is very dim and can't see in the pool. 

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You're right, I also liked to use the "Keep Display On" when swimming... They better resolve these issues quickly or I'll be returning the watch. Swimming is the main activity I wanted to use it for, and it was almost perfect on the old Galaxy Watch, why did they have to go and fix something that wasn't broken... All i was expecting with the new watch was slightly better GPS fix and I would have been happy, instead it looks like Samsung has reduced functionality and introduced a number of bugs...

[alex271]

i am relatively new to this forum but will there be any further feedback from samsung or is this just a way to give unsatisfied consumers a one-off answer and then let members try to find a solution themselves? @AndrewL 

[AntS]

Hi @alex271 , I've let the software team know about the lack of a workable pause feature. Me or one of the other moderators will keep you posted on the feedback we get from the developers.